Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health announced yesterday a range of initiatives aimed at further boosting the Kingdom’s health care sector competencies through training, technology advancement and knowledge-sharing in line with the goals of the country’s strategic health care plan. These initiatives come as part of the efforts undertaken by the MoH to develop its health care services, enhance the performance of its facilities and increase the efficiency of its employees. Training and scholarships are taking the center stage of the ministry’s plans with its budget allocation raised from SR 150 million to SR 350 million during the last three budgets. In addition, training programs now cover a wider section of employees at medical, technical and administrative levels. The MoH also continues working on finding solutions to the various challenges faced by the health care sector in the Kingdom and improving the standards of national health care in line with the directives of the ministry to serve patients, ensure their satisfaction, maintain their health and safety and improve services provided to them to achieve the goal of “Patient First.” Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah and GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt announced the details of the initiatives during a meeting that was held at office. The new initiatives will include: • The establishment of a health care learning and simulation center in Riyadh. • Plans to collaborate on the development of a modern performance improvement unit to serve MoH facilities. • Opportunities to establish and deploy a new e-health interoperability standards program. • Active and ongoing assessment by MoH and GE to explore opportunities for the localization of medical devices. Arab news